If you are old enough to vividly remember the year 1989, you definitely recall that worldwide phenomenon that was the “batmania” which unleashed around the time of Tim Burton’s first Batman movie premier. Of course, in those times we didn’t have two (or more) new superhero movies coming out every summer, so the release of a big budget blockbuster like that was a humongous event for all comic book nerds, myself included.
Yes, I was comic book nerd, and even though I stopped following the Marvel and DC title as an adult, I never stopped feeling that adolescent excitement every time a new super-hero flick hits the big screens. OK, maybe it will never be as all-encompassing as the “batmania,” by my level of excitement for the upcoming Avengers movie is actually pretty high, so much so that it prompted me to compile this list of ten songs in Spanish with lyrics about world-saving masked heroes. Like Stan Lee would say: excelsior!
10. “El Superhéroe”
by Vico C
[Puerto Rico]
If you’re not horrified by the “na-na-na” singing (yikes!) in the song’s opening, you’ll probably get there when its plot-twist hits and rap-en-español pioneer Vico C turns all Christian on you and starts preaching about the only real superhero, who’s not Superman, nor Spiderman, it’s the guy up there who he calls “the master.”
Lame video (with all the P.Diddy-esque clichés of the time) for a lamer song. I wish Dr Manhattan showed up at Vico’s door to show him who the real master is.
[insert-video youtube=BP3Z2zeOsRQ]
09. “Mujer Maravilla”
by Los Enanitos Verdes
[Argentina]
On this blues-rock number from their weak 2002 album Amores Lejanos, old-school Argentine rockers Los Enanitos Verdes sing about Wonder Woman. But don’t get too excited, it’s not the sexy amazon goddess with the lasso of truth, the invisible plane and the cleavage that Lynda Carter impersonated so damn well in the ’70s TV series.
Instead this Wonder Woman is an everyday woman who does maravillas like running around the park and taking her kids to school without the help of superpowers. I get it, its empowering for the girls out there, but… Boring!
[insert-video youtube=2JtA9wL2M18]
08. “Guacarock del Santo”
by Botellita de Jeréz
[Mexico]
Masked wrestlers are, to certain extent, the Mexican culture equivalent of comic-book super heroes, and there are plenty of songs about them, so many that they deserve their on top-ten (and they’ll get it soon, I promise).
This one here, however, deserves an honorable mention because in the second verse, Botellita de Jeréz compare El Santo’s real world fighting skills with those of the heroes in the comic-book pages, Batman and Superman, who, they accuse, never walked into a ring. True that.
[insert-video youtube=aaB4Siy740k]
07. “Superhéroe”
by Alexis y Fido
[Puerto Rico]
These B-list reggaetoneros Alexis y Fido apparently have a thing for super-heroes. On their 2009 album paradoxically titled Down To Earth, they have not one but two songs that touch the subject, albeit tangentially.
This is one of them, “Superhéroe,” and it doesn’t talk about any comic-book masked hero in particular, instead talks about a sexually insatiable woman who begs for a super-hero with super loving skills to come over and finish the task her boyfriend couldn’t.
The other track is called “Gatúbela” (that’s the Spanish translation of Catwoman) and most probably also tells the story of another imaginary nymphomaniac, don’t expect a lot of creativity from these characters.
[insert-video youtube=yrfkTIwOda0]
06. “La Baticueva”
by Wilfred y la Ganga
[Puerto Rico]
This one came out right around the time of the aforementioned “batmania.” Wilfred & La Ganga earned their recognition for penning one of the earliest international hits of rap in Spanish, “Mi Abuela;” this lesser known song about Batman and Robin was included on that same record (or cassette tape, yup I used to have it, in that format).
The songs makes all sorts of silly references to Adam West’s era Batman including, obviously, the homoerotic fantasy of his relationship with Robin who allegedly died of aids (!). It’s not Prince’s epic “Batdance” but I’ll give it a pass for the nostalgic value only.
